Tucked away in a bustling street of Mylapore stands an 118-year-old college reflecting its founder’s goal of safeguarding, restoring, and preserving Sanskrit, one of India’s oldest languages. The aim of eminent lawyer and philanthropist V. Krishnaswamy Iyer, who founded the Madras Sanskrit College in 1906, was to protect Indian tradition and culture. With multiple cultures existing in every nook and cranny of India, Krishnaswamy Iyer embarked on the mission in Madras to preserve the gurukul system from the “invasion” of Western education and help the professors retain their jobs.
In 1907, the college was affiliated to the University of Madras, and was recognised by the Department of Collegiate Education under the grant-in-aid. The college has also been partly aided by the Union Ministry of Education under the Adarsha Mahavidyalaya Scheme since 1977.
Lack of research
Ramesh Mahalingam, one of the trustees of the college, who is primarily responsible for the Digital Camps of the institution, and great-grandson of Krishnaswamy Iyer, says funds are still coming in and the Central Sanskrit University is also extending help. The biggest challenge, however, is the lack of research institutes. “We have developed a disincentive towards Sanskrit. Our officers and government are not setting up enough research institutes. If the government assigns research institutes to go through old Sanskrit manuscripts, there will be enough work for 1,000 students a year,” he says.
To make education accessible to all, the college opened its gates to female students in 1989-1990, waived tuition fees and provided free accommodation. The college also provides teachers with stipends and free accommodation. A trust deed was registered by Krishnaswamy Iyer and C.P. Ramasamy Iyer on October 27, 1907, to maintain the college and promote research.
The Madras Sanskrit College is the only college in India that teaches all six Shastras (Advaita Vedanta, Jyotisha, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Vyakarana, and Sahitya). In 1917, English teachers were hired and exams were held in comparative and critical studies too. Mr. Mahalingam says there are very few colleges that teach Mimamsa. Dr. S. Arunasundaram is the principal and V. Srikanth is the secretary of the Sri V. Krishnaswami Iyer Sanskrit Education Trust that runs the college.
Mr. Mahalingam wishes to offer a B.A. History with courses in Vedic civilisation and how the culture was developed over the years. Mr. Mahalingam said they are still discussing about opening up another branch soon. “We cannot cover every concept in our Indian tradition. Our tradition is vast. From ayurveda to architectural buildings, our forefathers have covered it. We are now just focusing on certain sections,” he says.
Coming to grips with the exponential growth of cloud-based learning and the Internet, the college opened a digital campus in 2017. Now, its courses are just a tap away on our mobile screens. “Soon, all education will be online. We want to ensure that the wealth of knowledge available in the college doesn’t go to waste, but reaches the intended audience. We have based our digital campus on this aim. We have courses in Vedanta, Yoga, Vyakarana, Nyaya, and Jyotisha. Basic Sanskrit is just the beginning. Our goal is to take people up the ladder of knowledge,” Mr. Mahalingam says.
There are 270 students on the campus. The digital wing has over 10,000 students in 25 courses. Mr. Mahalingam says NRIs, housewives, and retired people join online courses. The youngest student ever to finish an online course is an 8-year-old.
Prominent visitors
According to the college website, Mahatma Gandhi visited the college on April 28, 1915, and expressed admiration for its work. On October 9, 1922, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore visited the college and appreciated the study of Advaita philosophy. The Diwan of Mysore, Sir Mirza M. Ismail, Oxford University Professor of Sanskrit Studies F. W. Thomas, and University of Copenhagen’s Paul Taxon are among the prominent visitors. The college is a recipient of the Mahamahopadhyay Award given to scholars whose works delve into the Shastras.
The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute was established on the campus in 1945 to pay homage to Mahamahopadhyaya, Darsana Kalanidhi, Vidyavacaspati, professor S. Kuppuswami Sastri. The institute takes care of the centuries-old manuscripts. S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri, Padnabushan K. Bala Subrahmanya Iyer, and others have helped the institute receive international recognition in Sanskrit and Indology.
Despite Sanskrit being given importance in the National Education Policy, Mr. Mahalingam points out that Tamil Nadu follows the two-language policy. In his view, this was “a very regional outlook, not a national one”. “We have only explored 7% of the Sanskrit works left by our ancestors. There’s another 93% which nobody has even opened. They are olai chuvadi (palm-leaf manuscripts) which are in somebody’s drawer, house or library. It would be a great disservice to future generations not to pass them on,” he says.
Many of the palm-leaf manuscripts were still unexplored treasures. “It is still uncharted territory and some parts are not even discovered or even utilised. We are just letting it rot,” he says.
